An Unexpected Source
by Crimson Flare101
Summary: Rei has everything planned out. Ever since she was 8 years old she knew what she would do. Follow in her father's footsteps and protect Konoha. To do that she needs to destroy its biggest threat and keep her own ancestors a secret. She's been undercover in ROOT for three years. There's a lot of unexpected distractions, but the result will be a completely free Konoha. If it works.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue- Meeting Orochimaru **

Belatedly she realized she should have retreated as soon as she found out Konoha was here. She wouldn't have needed to eavesdrop, it would have been easy enough to work out on her own. ANBU + Orochimaru + No fighting = Secret Alliance. It could have been that simple, but instead she had decided to stick around and think that her genjutsu was good enough to fool five ANBU. Ha! Genjutsu was her worst subject! Now she was racing blindly through Orochimaru's underground base, cursing herself all the while, and creating shadow clones to distract them. She swerved around a corner and paused outside a door.

Creating a shadow clone, she instructed it to keep running, then slipped into the rom. It was dimly lit and seemed to be a type of throne room, with a large chair sitting on a slightly raised dais. Then she froze, horrified and a voice echoed from the shadows, sending chills down her spine. "Well, well, it seems as if the mouse has walked right into the snake's den. Who sent the little rodent, I wonder?" Orochimaru stepped forward, his pale features illuminated by a torch and his snake-like eyes fixed on her as she backed quickly into a corner. He came closer, puzzled while aspects of her clothes clicked in. A white poreclain mask, blank. Obviously Konoha by the way she threw around one of their traditional jutsu's.

"ROOT?" He said aloud, then again with more certainty. "You are ROOT. Too bad, I can't let you report back to your master."

Wordlessly she pressed her back against the dirt wall and prayed this worked as she flashed through hand signs and whispered, "Doton: Dochu Senko." There was a brief feeling of weightlessness, then crushing pressure before she emerged into the adjoining room, a simple table and cot decorating the small space. She let out a breath of air, relieved. She wasn't ready to take on a Sannin, no matter how good she thought she was. With a chakra enhanced jump and more signs she sank into the ceiling, coming through the floor and into what looked like a dark medical room.

A monitor beeped quietly and she realized that someone was here. Which was proven when the lump on the bed said, "Who are you?"

"Uh, hello?" The figure sat up, revealing a bare chest with pads taped to it, monitoring vital signs and his long silver hair fell down his back. He couldn't have been more than 15.

"I said who are you? Are you trying to kill Master Orochimaru?"

"Kill Orochimaru? No way! I'm not here to hurt him."

The boy relaxed. "That's good."

She waited in silence for a few seconds, then asked. "So, why are you in here?"

"I'm dying," he answered bluntly. "It's a condition that runs in my clan, but the cure died along with them."

"Which clan?"

"Kaguya. I'm Kimimaro Kaguya. What's your name?"

She hesitated at this. "Listen, I'm not an enemy of Orochimaru and I promise I'm not here to hurt him in any way, but I'm still not supposed to be here…"

"I won't tell," he assured her. "I haven't had many people to talk to besides Kabuto and he's not very good company."

She chuckled. "My name's Rei. Can I ask you a question?"

He nodded.

"Why do you serve Orochimaru?"

"Because Orochimaru gave me meaning. He gave me something to live for." He tilted his head at her. "Do you have something to live for?"

Rei stared at him, considering this when a shout outside caught their attention and she inhaled sharply. Kimimaro watched her curiously while she scanned the room, then strode over to the table beside him and snatched up his medical file.

"I don't know you very well, but I promise I'll do my best to find you the cure."

"Why?"  
She smiled at him. "Because I think you deserve to live." Making a hand sign, the folder vanished into a storage seal inked into the metal plate embedded in the knuckle of her right glove. "I'll see you soon." Then she sank into the wall and was gone, just as Kabuto burst into the room.

"Kimimaro! Have you seen a ROOT agent around here?"

"No. No one has been in here that does not belong."

Kabuto nodded, distracted and he hurried out the door.

Rei had used the Doton: Dochu Senko six times and was really running low on chakra. The base was like a maze! Two more Doton: Dochu Senko's and she surfaced outside the building, at last, blinking against the sunlight.

"Finally." She murmured. Then she whirled around as the entrance door was flung open and five ANBU bounded out, followed by Orochimaru.

"The mouse is more clever than I thought."

Rei ran her gaze over the ANBU team, silently identifying them by mask.

_Inu= Kakashi Hatake, Tora= Kage Uzuki, Cat= Yuugao, Boar= Tenzo, and Pig= Hitoshi Hyuuga…great…_

Leaping a few feet away from them she simply observed. They were some of Hiruzen's most trustworthy operatives, so it made sense that they would be used as liaison's to the not-so-traitorous Sannin. He must have been an ally for awhile, or the whole time even, because Kakashi had been a jonin for the past two years and a sensei for the past month. He must have been brought back for this specific mission. However, Orochimaru being an ally meant that the Hokage knew Danzo was a traitor, which could work in her favor if she played her cards right. At the moment the ANBU were waiting for their superior to give them an order, which was Orochimaru. This wasn't good. She wasn't at full strength and even if she was she doubted it would be enough to defeat 5 ANBU and a Sannin, but the new jutsu she was working on could help…if it didn't blow up in her face.

Her newest jutsu was unavoidable, you had to counter it with a special technique, or by going underground, but it would take more time than the victim would have to figure that out. The jutsu had yet to be completed, however.

She frowned. Why weren't they moving And why was Orochimaru looking at her funny?

"You don't act like ROOT." He said.

_Stall. _"Oh, and what would ROOT act like?"

"Practical. They'd know this wasn't a battle they could win and they would try to escape. So the question remains, who do you work for?"

She snorted. "As if I'll tell you." _Don't let them know the truth if you don't have to. _Flying through some hand signs she said, "Raiton: Kirigakure Jutsu." An electrified must began to shroud the area, paralyzing everyone but the user only it seemed as if one of the ANBU had already started moving and he crashed into her, limp, their masks knocking together.

Kakashi realized now he should have tried to evade the unknown jutsu, rather than going after the enemy, but tackling her to the ground brought him a slight satisfaction. She had just incapacitated 5 ANBU and a Sannin in one move, albeit the move had been unexpected, but she could kill them now if she wanted. Getting in a hit eased his ego a bit. With the close proximity, he noticed some other things about their opponent. For example, she was short, but well-muscled in her arms and legs, and her figure gave away her gender. By the definition of her form he could tell she was lacking in physical strength, but made up for it with speed and flexibility. Being this close to her gave him means to memorize her scent, in case he ever ran into her in Konoha. It was a unique mix of pine trees and lavender and it smelled surprisingly good.

Then she pushed him off her and leapt to her feet, the mist dispersing and showing six collapsed Shinobi, all of which were glaring at the lone girl, who he knew was smirking.

"Well, I suppose I should kill you since you've seen me, but it would benefit me more if you all lived. You should be able to move again in a few minutes. Bye!" On that last, chipper note she turned and shunshin'd away.

_Okay, this is the prologue. Tell me what you think and the rest of my stories are on fictionpress, along with a detailed description of the plots of all my stories and the main characters._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1- Mission To Wave**

_3 Months Later…_

"Yes Danzo-sama, I will follow Kakashi Hatake and his squad on there first mission out of the village and make sure nothing happens to your precious Uchiha and the Kyuubi host. Yes, I understand you expect me to keep in hiding at all times." With a sigh, Rei sat perched in a tree, having exhausted her sarcasm and her own patience for the day. She was watching her two unofficial charges attempt to climb a tree all day, while itching to go visit Zabuza.

In the battle between him and Team 7 earlier she had prompted Haku to take action before Kakashi could finish him off. Now, she was impatient.

She had been carrying a message for Zabuza for several weeks and she was eager to get rid of it if the two genin would just go inside already!

Rei perked up when Naruto nearly collapsed and he and the Uchiha headed in. As soon as they cleared the doorway she was gone.

Zabuza wasn't alone in his room, Haku was there too, sitting quietly beside his master. A single candle sat on the bedside table lit up their faces and Zabuza abruptly opened his eyes. "I know you're there." He said, startling Haku out of his sleep.

Rei released her chakra hold on the ceiling and landed on the floor in front of Haku. "It's about time. I've been here for ten minutes trying to decide how to wake you up without losing my head."

"Rei?" Zabuza wondered.

"Of course. Who else?"

He shrugged. "With the mask it's hard to tell. Take it off."

"Say please."

The Demon of the Mist snorted, but mumbled, "Please."

Giggling, Rei did as he asked, revealing short brown hair and green eyes.

Zabuza frowned. "A wig and contacts? Kind of old-fashioned, isn't it?"

"Maybe, but a ninja who doesn't know me can't tell I'm in disguise." She said cheerfully, hooking her mask on her belt.

"Good point," he granted, then glanced at Haku, who was staring at Rei, confused and unable to detect any telltale signs of the indicated façade. "Rei, this is Haku, my apprentice. Haku, this is Rei, a messenger."

"A messenger?" Rei repeated, somewhat offended. "I'm pretty sure you wouldn't leave your Zamei with just any messenger."

"No, but Mei trusts you, for reasons I don't understand."

"Are you saying _you _don't trust me?"

"Yep."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know what you want. I doubt you're taking care of Zamei out of the goodness of your heart. If I knew what you were planning I would feel a lot better about this."

"Sorry, but I'm not telling. Anywho, I have a message for you." Rei knelt down and bit into her thumb, smearing blood on the metal on her right glove and forming a single sign. The storage seal glowed, then released an impressive collection of important folders, documents, and an assortment of scrolls. Picking carefully through some of the smaller, more decorative communication scrolls until she came to one titled, Zabuza Momochi, in neat kanji. She handed it to him and began to sort out everything, frowning. "This stuff really adds up after awhile…" she muttered.

Zabuza wasn't listening. After opening the blood seal, he was engrossed in the contents on his letter. Haku felt slightly out of place and decided to watch this 'Rei' character, who had resealed everything except a thick file with the name 'Kimimaro Kaguya' printed on the front, which she was currently reading.

"Whose Kimimaro Kaguya?" He asked curiously, vaguely noticing Zabuza taking out a blank scroll to reply to his message.

"He's a friend, but he's got an illness and I'm trying to figure out a cure for it."

"He must be a good friend."

"Eh, sort of. I've only known him for a few minutes, but I can tell he's a good person."

"Really? How?"  
She shrugged. "It's a sixth sense, I suppose."

"Here." Zabuza interrupted, tossing her a newly written scroll. "You'll take care of the protection seals?"  
"As always." And she resealed 'Kimimaro Kaguya' and the reply scroll back into her glove. "So if that's it, I'll be off."  
"Wait." Zabuza said. "In a few days, I'm going to fight Kakashi again. If I don't survive I want you to take my sword for Zamei and keep an eye on Haku."

Rei hesitated, looking from the unusually reserved Zabuza to a downtrodden Haku. "I can take care of the first one and I'll do my best on the second. That's all I can promise."

Zabuza nodded. "Thanks. You know, I never figured out where you were from."

She chuckled. "Everywhere." Then vanished.

_6 Days Later…_

Rei woke up in her usual tree and knew that today was the day. It was a feeling most experienced shinobi developed over time. Just a sense that something was going to happen today. It had warned her of many situations that would have otherwise caught her off guard. It seemed she had gotten up right in time to see Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura head out to the bridge.

Naruto must have overslept after wearing himself out training last night and of course his team had to decide to be nice today of all days and let him sleep in. Figures. Rei had fifteen minutes of tolerance in her before she gave the blonde boy an unexpected wake-up call. She sat up suddenly. Hmm, it seems some mercenaries were headed to the house. She could see through the window; Tsunami was cleaning the breakfast plates and Inari had gone upstairs a few seconds ago, so she might as well get rid of them.

Then the front door flew open and a bright orange blur darted out of the house, yelling, "I can't believe they left me!"

Rei hissed in frustration. "Idiot!" Then created a shadow clone. "Find the bandits and get rid of them, I'll follow the orange eyesore." Her and her doppelganger split up, each heading for their individual targets.

It didn't take long to reach the bridge and it took even less for everything to go down the drain. Now she was faced with a choice. Watch it play out and hope Haku didn't kill the Uchiha and Naruto didn't release the Kyuubi and Kakashi didn't kill Zabuza or break Danzo's rule of 'don't be seen.' With a weary sigh she shunshin'd herself into the ice dome, deflecting the senbon with a kunai before they could further injure the unconscious Naruto or the half-dead Sasuke, who looked like a pincushion. The latter of which was trying to decide between sinking to his knees in relief, or groaning at the arrival of a new enemy.

Then she glanced at him through her mask and said, "Don't worry, I've got it covered." Rei turned to Haku. "Hey! You've put these two out of action and I don't want to get involved, but Zabuza needs your help."

The telltale shrill chirping of high concentrated amounts of electricity cut through the mist and they both whipped around.

"No." Haku gasped.

The mirrors dissolved into water and almost in perfect unison they sprinted to the two A-Class ninjas, Rei swiftly outdistancing the lesser-trained Haku. She lunged towards them, hitting Kakashi's hand, but it only sent the jutsu slightly off course, sending it through Zabuza's chest rather than his heart.

Haku reached them in time to catch Zabuza's body as it slid from Kakashi's arm, blood dripping through Rei's fingers, since she had yet to release his wrist.

Kakashi noted the distinct scent of burned flesh and saw the partly shredded glove on Rei's right hand.

"Zabuza!" Haku shouted, tearing off his mask and Rei dropped to the ground beside him, powering up a basic healing jutsu and applying it to his wound.

"Come on Zabuza," she muttered, ignoring the attentive jonin standing behind her and the three genin across from her. "You can't die. Mei loves you, Zamei's waiting for you, Haku needs you, you can't just give up like this!"

Rei couldn't bring herself to pay attention as Gato showed up with an army of thugs, only vaguely noticing Kakashi and Naruto countering with their own mass of shadow clones and Wave Country's civilians showing up armed with various weapons. She was too busy noticing the pure grief in Haku's eyes as he cried over Zabuza's death. It had been too serious for her to heal with such minimal knowledge on medical techniques. She would have to remedy that as soon as she could catch a break.

She finally snapped herself out of her reverie and made her way to her feet, moving reluctantly towards the huge kibikiri hocho, which had been left abandoned on the bridge and simultaneously withdrawing a pre-prepared storage scroll from her pouch.

When that was taken care of she turned to face Kakashi, who had been observing her for the past few minutes as his team celebrated with Tazuna and his family.

Eventually he said, "You saved Sasuke."

She shrugged, not in the mood to respond.

The copy-nin scrutinized her carefully with his single dark eye, raking it over her as if to take in every detail so he would recognize her if they ever met again, then turned away. "It would seem as if a mysterious ally of Zabuza's had a soft heart and rescued one of my cute little genin, just as I finished him off. I'll put that in the report." He started to leave, but she caught his arm. When he looked at her she let him go and whispered, "Thank you."

"Maa, it can't be helped. I'm just a good person."

Rei giggled, then nodded her head to him and disappeared.

Kakashi didn't move after she left; only stared at the spot the masked ninja had been in, perplexed. At Orochimaru's base she had come off as heartless, merciless, the typical shinobi who had forgotten the value of human lives. Yet minutes before she seemed to care enough to let herself be seen and rescue Sasuke and Naruto, _then _try to save Zabuza with no regard for her own safety. If he hadn't caught her scent earlier he would have thought they were two different people.

And that giggle! It had actually been somewhat girly. Of course, he'd known she was a girl since the beginning, her voice and figure made that obvious, but it had also been so innocent. Not at all suited for a hardened ninja.

He shook his head. Never mind. He would think on it more later. Right now he needed a nap. A long nap.

The next day Kakashi, his genin, and Haku all stood beside the newly-dug grave, two of them aware of Rei, who had placed herself closer than usual with the sole purpose of being noticed, so she was there to witness Naruto's declaration of being a different kind of shinobi. When Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto left she created a shadow clone to tail them and leapt down.

"You're getting awfully comfy," Kakashi commented. "Showing yourself all the time."

"Don't worry, after this mission I doubt you'll ever see me again. I just needed to ask Haku about what he's going to do now."

"I've thought about it a lot," Haku said. "And you mentioned some people precious to Zabuza. Mei and Zamei. Who are they?"

"Mei is his lover and Zamei is his daughter."

Haku nodded, having suspected as much. "I would like to protect them, if you would point me in the right direction."

Rei considered this. Mei didn't need a bodyguard, but Zamei…and that would automatically mean protection for Shizo too, but it would be placing a great deal of trust in Haku as well.

As if reading her thoughts Haku added, "I don't care how hard it will be or how much work is expected to take care of Zamei, I'll do it. Please…"

Kakashi watched curiously, admittedly peeved that he couldn't see through the mask. There was very little he knew about this mysterious ninja and it frustrated him. Especially because she was from his own village. One he had sworn to guard from all danger.

Rei sighed. "Alright. Zamei is only three years old and there's Shizo too. He's four."

"Shizo is Zabuza's son?"

"No, he's the son of…someone else. I'll tell you later." Which was 'when Kakashi isn't listening' put politely.

He shrugged, ignoring the tickle in the back of his mind.

_Okay I'm looking for pairings for Rei. I already have a good idea of who it's going to be, but I'd like your opinions too. Here are the options:_

_Sasuke Uchiha_

_Kimimaro Kaguya_

_Haku_

_Kakashi Hatake_

_Shikamaru Nara_

_Naruto Uzumaki_

_Choji Akimichi_

_Shino Aburame_

_Neji Hyuuga_

_Gaara_

_Kiba Inuzuka_

_Rock Lee_

_And any other guys you can think of. This is just the main list. Send me a review or PM with your vote. And give me your opinion on the story. Also, for the next few chapters I'm going to be doing a lot of time skips, but I'll eventually get it started. This is just filler details. Hope you like._


End file.
